When performing the repair, sometimes you may damage the bezel and/or Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antenna. You may want to buy those parts just in case and if you don't end up using either of them, you can return them.

Stories

My Problem

We have an iPad that we have been for my daughter's education- she is 3 and has autism, but has always responded to people well using the iPad. I'd stepped on this iPad when it was left on the floor by the rugrat. We recieved an older, second iPad- iPad original- and I decided to try to repair this one so each of us had one to use at all times. I also wanted to troubleshoot my Wi-Fi. I hadn't used the iPad much after downloading OS 7, until I had the screen replaced. After doing both, I noticed decreased Wi-Fi connectivity. I had seen online comments about having Wi-Fi problems from both replacing the screen and downloading OS 7, and I wanted to make sure I hadn't cut or dislocated anything slightly that was connected to Wi-Fi.

My Fix

I'd replaced this screen once before when she dropped the tablet on its corner and it spiderwebbed across part of the screen, so I knew what I was doing. I hadn't adequately removed the previous adhesive, and used my hair dryer as a heat gun. It took less than ten minutes to get the screen removed cleanly.

Placing the adhesive strips around the edges of the screen was tricky, because there wasn't a clear picture of which adhesive strip to put where on the instruction screen. I guessed which ones to use based on the picture of the full front panel assembly, but the adhesive strips were shaped differently and the opening on the upper right side of the front panel is now toward the right end of the top side of the digitizer panel. I can live with that for now, but I plan to do it properly if anything like this happens again.

Everyone makes a big deal (out of caution and to make people aware) of the locations of buttons and the wi-fi antenna. After taking things apart, though, I found nothing wrong with the antenna. I unscrewed part of it but it didn't have any loose bits, and I didn't see any play in the plug where it was connected to the logic board. Everything looked good. I have Cerebral Palsy with tremors in my hands, and I can't trust my hand-eye coordination. I was very nervous the first time I replaced the digitizer (this is why, on my first go, I rushed through replacing the screen when the adhesive wasn't properly removed). I had two screaming kids to keep track of at the time I was changing things out, and it STILL worked fine for me.

My Advice

One thing that made it easier to keep the screen clean while I was changing out the parts was using disposable nitrile gloves to keep my finger oils off things. I had a terrible time keeping track of fingerprints last time, and that kept me from observing dust between the screen and the glass. This time, I was only working on one thing at a time-- the dust-- and it was gone quickly. This repair looks much better.

Also, the little piece of adhesive that belongs in the upper right hand corner could be attached to the metal case instead of the screen, so that the open space in the adhesive stays in the right place.

I wish there had been an instruction manual just for the adhesive, because I didn't want to dig through the instruction manual for the entire replacement when I had it basically memorized.

Also, I much prefer a carefully aimed hairdryer over an iOpener. It's a great concept but mine never got more than warm on the one-minute setting that is recommended, and I couldn't get the glass off with anything but the hairdryer.

My Advice

My Problem

After dropping my iPad on a hard floor, the glass in the top corner shattered. Figuring that it was cheaper (and more rewarding & personally satisfying) to fix it, I went online and was impressed with the video instructions on iFixit and decided to go for it.

My Fix

Repair went well. It was scary at times (being the first time I've done it) but nothing bad happened. The hardest part was removing all of the powdered glass from the area that was broken. Cleaning that took lots of time, effort and acetone but got it done with only a few cuts on my fingers.

My Advice

Take your time - I took about 2 hours in total but half of that was just getting the broken glass out. Don't forget to remove the home button from the old bezel before putting the whole thing back together. When I was done, I wasn't really happy with how the new glass was lying in the frame. I put the unit under a stack of magazines and put a weight on top overnight. By morning it was perfect.

My Problem

My Fix

Repair went very smoothly, I check the repair guide several times as I waited to get the part from ifixit, also watched their video guide couples of times, so when I finally got the front panel I was very much ready as one can get from reading, and watching the tutorials.

Finally got the part, the only issue I had was with the part where the glass was badly shattered, other than that, it was pretty straight forward.

My Advice

For advice, make sure you verify the integrity of the part, when I got mine I saw air bubbles in the front glass, I thought I was the plastic film covering the glass.

It turns out the part is defective, it has a lamination problem, as air got caught in between the glass and the digitizer.

My Advice

My Problem

The iPad screen broke after being dropped and our Verizon insurance replaced it no questions asked. They didn't want the "broken" iPad back and suggested we just throw it away. We are talking about a $900 64GB iPad with Wi-Fi and CDMA that still worked fine. My friend used it for a couple months until I suggested we fix the screen.

My Fix

Since the glass was broken terribly (this version of the glass seems to "spider-web" out into thousands of pieces with cracked) the install was slightly different than the guide would suggest. Getting the screen off in one piece was impossible. Once I realized this, I just pulled off the larger pieces then heated the outer-rim and used the spludger to scrape off the shards and dust-sized glass pieces.

Since I was careful with the home button and iSight clips I don't regret not paying the extra $40 for the assembly version of this product. Although I will admit it would have saved me around 30 minutes had I gone with that version of this panel.

Total repair time: 2 hours

My Advice

The iOpener heated bag of rice worked ok but things got much easier when I used my Wagner heat gun. Purchased for ~$20 it made the glue much easier to remove. Just be sure to direct the heat away from iPad components and keep the setting on Low in order to not damage the batteries (which is about 755 of the iPad's bulk).

My Problem

My best friend and I bought our iPad 3 4G's at the same time. My friend started dating a girl so I hadn't seen him in a couple of months. I ran into him one night and he let me know that he had dropped his iPad and was very upset about it. I was too after seeing the picture he took of it. He dropped it getting out of his car. It was in a padded slip case and it didn't drop far but hit right on the corner as you'll see in the picture. He didn't think it could be fixed by the likes of us but I reminded him that i'd taken plenty of (successful) risks with iPods, a MacBookPro and several other computers, but never an iPad. I told him about iFixit but he had doubts. I did some research and told him it would run about $150 to fix the front panel. Well worth it to quit cutting his fingers and having to relive the experience everyday. He agreed so I ordered the tools and display from iFixit.

My Fix

The repair was tedious and slow because the display was falling apart in tiny pieces. We finally hit a point where we got a good chunk so to make it heat up faster we used a hair dryer along with the iOpener. We didn't have any problems after that. We used an Xacto knife ,(very carefully) and iFixit tweezers to get off the remainder of adhesive and little bits of glass. We also used a small vacuum cleaner to keep the work area clean. Heat was the most important tool we had. We had to be careful though not to over heat the iPad and damage it. Its a fine line between not enough heat and too much. Before adhering the display we hooked it up and lined it up to make sure it worked. It didn't. We were about 5 hrs. in so we waited overnight to troubleshoot. I reached out to the help forum on iFixit and got some advice to hold down the lock button for about 15 seconds then plug in the iPad to power and it should boot up. It didn't boot so I thought maybe a hard reset by holding the lock button and the home button for about 15 seconds and then plug it in, that did it! I was so happy to see my friends eyes light up when the white apple showed up on the screen. We tested everything from a list we found on a video on YouTube. Everything worked fine so we stuck the display on, heated the tape a bit and put a couple big books on it overnight. It was well worth the time we put into it.

My Advice

We felt like the day we got our iPads in the mail, there is still a little chip on the aluminum housing but we filed it down very carefully with a very fine file. The beauty of that new display took our eyes away from it. The best advice I could give would be first and foremost heat! Then, patience and plenty of time. If we would have realized the importance of direct heat on the edges we could have cut our work time by quite a bit. 2 heads and 4 hands really helped! You may also want to replace the bevel depending on the severity of the break. It was a difficult task but the reward is well worth it! Thank you iFixit for saving my ) ) one more time!

My Problem

My Fix

My Advice

My Problem

The iPad was dropped on concrete and the glass shattered. Luckily the rest of the iPad was completely functional.

My Fix

It took quite a bit of time to remove the smaller pieces of glass before I was able to get enough solid glass surface(s) to get the guitar picks under. But the time was definitely worth it as my iPad is back up and running for a third of the cost of sending to Apple for out-of-warranty repair.

My Advice

The iOpener has to be hot! Mine smelled a bit like popcorn when heated fully. Also note that the iOpener will release moisture as it is heated. Since the glass was already cracked, this moisture can make it's way into the hardware. I used an Xacto knife and tweezers to remove the smaller pieces of glass and used the iOpener to warm the larger pieces which were easily seperated from the case with the guitar picks.

The pictures make it seem as if the WiFi antenna is attached to the glass. It's more of a foam-rubber seal and wasn't attached. It may actually be better to treat that area like the touchscreen ribbon and avoid it entirely. Or at most, only insert the guitar pick about 1/8" in.

The guide doesn't show it but the button and camera fixtures must be removed from the existing glass and attached to the new. This is another spot where the Xacto knife comes in handy as once the old glass is off you can slide the blade under the fixtures to easily remove them. The adhesive that comes with the glass includes pieces for the button but not the camera so cut some from the waste material.

It's time to speak out for your right to repair

Dear Minnesotans,

Right now, Minnesota has a chance to pass the first Fair Repair bill in the nation.
We have a chance to guarantee our right to repair electronics—like smartphones, computers, and even farm equipment.
We have a chance to help the environment and stand up for local repair jobs—the corner mom-and-pop repair shops that keep getting squeezed out by manufacturers.

We've been working with local repair companies, non-profit refurbishers, and tech-savvy politicians to come up with a solution. And they've done just that — Minnesota is the first state to consider a Fair Repair Bill.

If you agree with us, find out who represents you in the Minnesota House of Representatives.
Tell them you support the bipartisan Fair Repair Bill, HF 1048. Tell them that you believe repair
should be fair, affordable, and accessible.